Adhesive layer and its application to hockey stick blades

ABSTRACT

An adhesive layer on at least one side of a hockeystick blade is 0.01 to 8 mm thick and made of ceramics, limestone, glass, rubber, textile, plastics consisting of 0,01 to 8 mm grains. The adhesive layer is equipped on one side with self-adhesive material, and the thus adapted layer is pressed on by sinking it into the blade surface. Alternatively, it may be made by pressure spraying.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention relate to the to adaptation of a hockey-stick blade by anadhesive layer and to the manner of its application. The field of theinvention is sports and pleasure, especially for games with a puck orball.

The till now known hockey sticks use miscellaneous materials, wherebyfor the sake of constructional and material features and also owing tothe surface finish, the blade surface of the hockey-stick is undesirablysmooth. Till now known solutions with regard to hockey-sticks areinvolved with construction, shape, improvement of strength or improvedjoining of the perch with the blade. These solutions are only marginallyinvolved in removing undesirable slipperiness of the blade and have onlyresulted in partial insufficiently effective solutions and mainlyadditional adaptations with very short service life, e.g. thehockey-stick blade wound by textile tapes, eventually ribbing of theblade. The disadvantage of this method is the fact that for instance, inthe case of ribbing, the slipperiness decreases only partly at loweredstrength of the blade. Moreover the technology requires expensivemachine equipment and therefore its efficiency compared with costs isvery low. Further the negative mark of the adaptation by ribbing is theworsened control of the puck leading and shortened service life of thehockey-stick. Often, to lower the blade slipperiness of thehockey-stick, additional banding by different textile tapes is used.These tapes partly lower the puck or ball slipping along thehockey-stick blade, whereby their effect is limited by short servicelife. Especially blade edges of the hockey-stick at contact spots withthe playing surface are quickly worn out, torn and separated from theblade surface. Further, when using such a bandage treated hockey-stickblade on the ice surface, ice particles are caught in the tape and icingarises which increases the slipperiness and its inequality decreases thecontrol of the puck or ball.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention solves, in a different manner from the till now knownattempted solutions, the problem of hockey-stick blade slipperiness inan inexpensive manner with a resulting long service life of the bladesurface. The substance of the solution according to the invention isthat the hockey-stick blade surface is equiped at least on one side ofthe blade with a 0,01 to 8 mm thick adhesive layer made of a 0,01 to 8mm grains of convenient material like for example corundum, ceramics,limestone, glass, rubber, textile and plastics. The adhesive layer madein the above mentioned manner removes drawback of till now knownsolutions eliminating the slipperiness of the hockey-stick bladesurface, removes an incontrollable slipping of the puck or ball alongthe hockey-stick blade, improves and exacts the control of the puck orball in game situations, increases the accuracy of passing or shootingto goal, enables a larger game variability and attractiveness, resultingin the players having an improved psychological state. Furtheradvantages of the solution is that the adhesive layer on thehockey-stick blade can be applied in different colour combinations andit is possible to make figures and advertising inscriptions. Theadhesive layer is applied on the hockey-stick blade so that the adhesivelayer on one side is equipped with self-adhesive material and theadapted layer is pressed on the blade surface whereby the adhesive layercan be applied also by embedding it into the blade surface or formingthe layer by spraying.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a hockey stick having a blade of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention is illustrated in FIG. 1, which depicts a hockey stick 1having a blade 2 with an adhesive layer 3 thereon. The adhesive layercan be applied so that figures and advertising inscriptions are depictedtherein. For example, the adhesive layer 3 in FIG. 1 spells out the word“HOCKEY.”

Example 1

On a hockey-stick, the stick and blade of which is made of wood withdimensions of the blade length 25 cm and width 7 cm, a 0,1 mm thickadhesive layer consisting of 0,1 mm grains is applied as a self-adhesivelayer.

Example 2

On a hockey-stick made of pressed laminate a 3 mm thick adhesive layerconsisting of 3 mm glass grains is applied to both sides of the blade,which is embedded 2 mm deep into the blade surface and it is applied bypressure spraying.

Example 3

On a wooden hockey-stick on both sides of the blade in a direction fromthe rounded end to two-thirds across the blade hot pressed adhesivelayer made of 0,7 mm Novodur is applied.

The invention can be used in all sports games using hockey-sticks orother sporting sticks. The subject of the invention is applicable insingle part production and series production. The application andapplication manner can be used as part of the technological operation ofthe production process.

What is claimed is:
 1. A hockey-stick blade having a 0.01 to 8 mm thickadhesive layer on at least one side thereof, the adhesive layercomprising 0.01 to 8 mm grains of corundum, ceramics, limestone, glass,rubber, textiles and plastics.
 2. A method of applying an adhesive layeron a hockey-stick blade comprising applying a self-adhesive layer on oneside of the adhesive layer and pressing the self-adhesive layer onto theblade surface; the adhesive layer being 0.01 to 8 mm thick andcomprising 0.01 to 8 mm grains of corundum, ceramics, limestone, glass,rubber, textiles and plastics.
 3. A method of applying an adhesive layeron a hockey-stick blade comprising pressure spraying the adhesive layer;the adhesive layer being 0.01 to 8 mm thick and comprising 0.01 to 8 mmgrains of corundum, ceramics, limestone, glass, rubber, textiles andplastics.
 4. A method of applying an adhesive layer according to claim 2or 3 wherein the adhesive layer is embedded into the blade surface.